So far, so good for power-sharing deal

Is Tasmania a taste of the future? With the Greens resurgent thanks to the latest dismal opinion polls for the federal Labor Party, it is worth looking to the island state to see how comfortable the odd bedfellows have been finding their cohabitation. The power-sharing agreement in Tasmania that helped return Labor to power with Green support had its first real stress test on Thursday with the state budget.

How well the two parties manage affairs is vital for Tasmanians, who are struggling to emerge from the financial slowdown.

Island exporters are contending with a strong Australian dollar, the Japanese are showing less appetite for woodchips, and a lasting “peace" deal on the logging issue is still being thrashed out between conservationists and the timber industry.

It’s not the first time the Tasmanian Greens have played a role propping up a minority Labor government. In the early 1990s, the
Bob Brown
-led Greens forged a formal accord to support Michael Field’s Labor government.

That agreement fell apart amid rancour. Both sides say they have learned the lessons.

The state election in March this year returned a hung parliament, with the Liberal and Labor parties each winning 10 seats and the Greens claiming the remaining five.

Under the new deal, there is no formal agreement between Labor and the Greens.

It is a strategy that allows wriggle room on policy for both sides and gives the alliance a better chance of success.

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It’s a complex management challenge. McKim has ministerial responsibilities and O’Connor is the cabinet secretary but they also retain their Green party portfolios, in which they will scrutinise their government counterparts.

On raw numbers, Labor’s 10 lower house members, plus the two Green cabinet ministers, would be outgunned on the floor by the 10 Liberals, backed by the three “outside" Greens.

The budget is one of the first overt measures of how those numbers translate into policy.

Treasurer
Michael Aird
is quick to enumerate Labor’s budget wins: “fully three-quarters" of its election promises have been reflected in the budget, he says.

But that is the result of happy compromise, Aird adds.

He insists there was no need for voting among the seven Labor MPs and two Greens around the cabinet table.

“The discussions I had with them were amicable, conciliatory and amenable to really supporting the overall budget strategy," he says.

“What the Greens wanted and what we wanted was to ensure that we had a responsible budget."

McKim takes a similar line. His and O’Connor’s roles in cabinet resulted in “greening up" of the budget, he says, citing as wins for the Greens state rail investment, funding for parks and wildlife and a cost-of-living strategy.

The Greens leader released a list of 21 specific Greens policy initiatives funded in the budget.

“Ultimately, when we made the decision to take cabinet positions we said we wanted to use our influence in cabinet to deliver on Greens funding priorities and that’s what we’ve done in this budget," he says.

“This is the start of what we believe will be a four-year government and there will be other opportunities for us to have influence over funding arrangements."

It takes repeated questioning to overcome McKim’s clear reluctance to nominate specific Green policies that have been left out.

A state-based subsidy for solar panels is one such measure, he admits.

“There are any number," he adds. “You could pick many Greens policies that weren’t delivered in this budget.

“I’m not ashamed of that. I’m proud of what we have delivered."

There are bound to be more uncomfortable moments.

The Greens have pledged not to block supply. As a result, the two MPs in cabinet have backed a budget which will fund a long-term forestry plan that the party as a whole may wish to contest.

Richard Eccleston, senior lecturer at University of Tasmania’s school of government, says there is no clear “green tinge" to the state’s 2010-11 budget. “Resources are very tight in Tasmania and are actually getting tighter as the federal stimulus money washes through," he says.“It was a pretty bare-bones budget."

More politically significant are two reviews announced during the week: one into Tasmania’s troubled electricity system and another into the state taxation system.

Power-sharing in government is paving the way for a more inclusive style of policymaking that involves all parties, Eccleston says.

It’s a model that’s already well tested in “genuine multi-party systems" elsewhere in the world.

“If you want to make policy and genuine reform in contentious areas, you need have a transparent and open kind of process," he says.

“It’s slower and more laborious but it’s the only way you can proceed."

Kate Crowley, an associate professor who heads the school of government, has been a long-time scholar of Greens in politics in Australia and abroad.

She argues that the Greens’ dual role is strategic and their superior numbers outside cabinet are an advantage.

“The minority Labor government is on notice that the numbers are outside," she says.

Personality also plays a part, Crowley says, pointing to the good working relationship established between Premier
David Bartlett
and McKim.

“You’re dealing with a very reasonable and pragmatic Green in Nick McKim," she says.